Email home #11

Well, it has been quite the week! I can hardly think where to start to catch all y'all up. I think the last time I emailed was...oh wow...has it really been almost 3 weeks! Sorry about that! It has been a crazy couple of weeks! The last few weeks in the village did not quite end how I had anticipated. I had anticipated doing a lot of interviews, strengthening relationships with people in the village, catching up on all my assignments, and just enjoying the serene beauty of Chavadipudur. But life doesn't typically follow my plans. I spent a good amount of my last week keeping Gwen company in the hospital or else sitting on the veranda waiting for the translator to come and then getting a text message saying she isn't able to make it...and then it starts raining...and the power goes out. If I believed in karma, I would say that a lifetime worth of procrastination karma finally caught up with me. Not that I really procrastinated. But all the same, many things were left to the last few weeks and I wasn't able to accomplish them. But things have a way of working out, and already things are falling into place to finish homework projects and assignments. I just need to figure out how to salvage my research with only the two post-Ooty interviews I was able to do. I plan to email my research professor shortly.

My last few days in the village were very nice. I was a sappy, sentimental fool, however. I would walk around, overwhelmed with how much I loved my village home, with the strains of such songs as 'Together Forever' (well its hard to say goodbye and let go, and its hard to see it end, when the memories we have made will never happen again), 'So Long, Farewell', and 'I'm leaving on a 3G (the bus number...as opposed to 'jetplane', because, let's be honest, I was leaving by bus) wafting through my head.


Goodbyes were difficult. They always are, but especially with those I grow to love the most and who I simply don't know that I will ever see again. I said goodbye to the rice meal family. The mother wished me off by saying "bless you, my child". The hardest goodbye was definitely the family: Matthew, Jeeva, Edwin, Priya and Appa. Oh how I love them! They fed us dinner on Tuesday night and then we took some pictures together. Jeeva started tearing up and part of me wanted to as well. I love them so much! The next morning they got up at 5:00 with us to see us off. We gave them hugs, thanked them and said goodbye, knowing that nothing we could say would be sufficient to let them know how much they mean to us, how much we appreciated all they did for us, and how much we will miss them.
They walked to the bus stop and helped us on and told us that when we come back...If only.

Well, from there we were off. We were once again wanderers in a strange land. We got on a bus before 6:00 that morning and arrived in Sravanabelagola 3 buses and 10 hours later. We were greeted by April who led our weary group to the accommodations office and then to our lodging. I am staying in a triple room with April and Melanie, a smelly squatter, and lukewarm water in a bucket for bathing. I'm excited.


I really enjoy this place. Sravanabelagola is pretty small, and has a really comfortable feel to it. I feel very comfortable, safe and at peace wandering the streets, climbing up the hills, visiting temples (bastis) and tea stalls (restaurants). Sravanabelagola is a Jain pilgrim site, and is also famous in that it is home to the largest monolith in the world: a 517 ft tall statue of Buhubali. My second day here I hiked the 614 steps to the top of the big hill to see the statue. It was impressive. It was amazing to see the stairs chiseled in the granite hillside and to see the 1025 year old temples and statue and to think of the workmanship and devotion that went in to their creation.

I hiked up the hill with April at around 7:30am. It was a gorgeous day. 7:30 is the same time that the holy men, munis, also tend to go visit the sacred sites of Sravanabelagola. Several of them were just in front of us on the stairs. Something of interest about Jain holy men, is that many of them are what are called 'digambar'. A muni that Melanie, April and I met with explained the term to us. "Dig" means direction. Or 10 directions: north, east, south, west, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, above and below. "Ambar" means "to cover". So the word essentially means to cover with all the directions. And only the direction. No cloth. No clothes. Aka, they go around completely nude, representing their utter detachment. They are very respected. And I sat in a room with one of these holy men for an hour and a half and was behind several more walking up the stairs and and have seen many others in commute, doing puja, visiting temples, etc. So yeah.

I really am enjoying it here. I love being united with the BYU group. I love the small time feel and the less humid weather. The food is pretty good, and I just love walking up the hills, especially if there is time to sit and think and just enjoy the peace and beauty of it all. I also enjoy learning about Jainism and talking to the people here. People are kind and open and speak pretty good English. I love being about to communicate with people!

So life is pretty good right now. I am having some great cultural learning experiences and enjoying experiencing and seeing and hearing new things. I'll likely be ready to leave when we take off on Thursday to spend the night in Bangalore before catching a flight to Delhi to catch a train to Varanasi, but I'm sure a part of me will be sad to leave this place. It's a good life. Well, my computer time, is about up, so I guess I'll write y'all later! Have a good one! I hope y'all had a great Halloween and that Nor had a great birthday!

Love,
Al